The Daily Dispatch: may 9, 1862., [Electronic resource]

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An ambush on the Shenandoah.

An officer attached to Wheat's battalion communicated to us yesterday the particulars of an affair which occurred near Slabtown, on the Shenandoah river, in Rockingham county, on Sunday last. Col. Wheat's battalion of Louisiana Volunteers, now a part of General Taylor's brigade, of Ewell's division, was out on picket duty, when it discovered a large Federal force of three regiments approaching. The battalion was immediately thrown into ambush, and patiently awaited the enemy's approach until the proper time for firing, when a well-directed volley was poured into his ranks, which threw them into confusion and caused them to fly without firing a gun. Col. Wheat had only 280 men, and seized the opportunity to make a safe retreat to his own supporting force, which was too far off to get up in time, or the affair would have been more extensive and advantageous to us. The enemy left fifteen dead in the road and carried off a number of wounded. On our side there was one man killed, belonging to the ‘"Tigers, "’ by the accidental discharge of a comrade's gun. Nobody was wounded.

Our men took one prisoner of the 1st Virginia. Federal Regiment — that regiment was made up chiefly of Dutch and Ohioan. He claimed mercy on the score of the harmlessness of his service, as he had never fired a gun at a Confederate soldier!